2 Gunmen Make Off With $1 Million In Gems From Tiffany's

NEW YORK — With precision timing and a dash of bravado, two armed robbers invaded Tiffany's in midtown Manhattan late Sunday, making off with about $1 million in jewelry, police said.

No shots were fired and no one was injured. But it was the costliest robbery in the 157-year history of Tiffany & Co., which had been victimized nine times previously by ambitious shoplifters, smash-and-grab thugs, con artists with elaborate tales and, once, by a man who shot a hole in a Fifth Avenue display window and tried to snare a necklace with a wire.

The robbers Sunday appeared to know a great deal about Tiffany's security: its guard schedules, the use of intercoms at locked doors, how to turn off alarms and the location of video cameras and keys to the sales floor, with its treasure-filled display cases.

"It was a very, very professional job," Capt. Salvatore M. Blando, the commander of Third Division detectives, told reporters. "We're looking into it being an inside job."

Tiffany gave no estimate of the loss. Sgt. John Clifford, a Police Department spokesman, said the loss was "upwards of $1 million."

With bullet-proof glass covering the displays in its jewel-studded windows, with nine-foot steel doors, bomb-resistant vaults, alarms, hidden cameras, guards and other precautions, Tiffany's is often thought to be only slightly less vulnerable than the nation's gold reserves at Fort Knox.

But the robbers required only an hour to complete the job. They began by overpowering a guard arriving at midnight to replace two guards who were inside.

Together, the three walked to the employee entrance. Following the robbers' instructions, Blando said, the security guard told a guard inside that he was with "my cousins" and was buzzed in. In a security office just inside, the three guards-and a fourth who arrived for work minutes later-were bound with duct tape.

In the security office, the robbers also obtained a key to the main retail sales room on the ground floor, and electronically disabled a set of alarms linked to the merchandise display cases in the room.

While one robber watched the four guards, the other spent about 20 minutes in the sales room, investigators said.

Investigators said the robber was selective, choosing some 300 necklaces, bracelets, watches, rings and earrings encrusted with diamonds, rubies, emeralds and other gems.

After completing the haul, the robbers made off with the videotapes from security cameras, police said.